In Your Love
by Curare
Summary: Ash discovers himself to be a father. Forcing him to choose between ML and his ofspring. R+R please
1. Chapter 1

Title: "In Your Love"  
  
Rating: 18 (Rape)  
  
Spoiler: The NightWorld series.  
  
Disclaimer: The NW and all its characters are the creation of LJ Smith and are being used purely for fun. Any others not recognised belong to me.  
  
Summary: Ash finds the saying that man and jinn always leave their mark true, when he meets Masami, a half remembered shadow from the sins of his past. He's torn between his love for Mary-Lynette and the longing to hold his offspring. Meanwhile, the life Rowan wanted so desperately to leave behind catches up with her, as her fiancé pays a visit.  
  
Part 1  
  
Iced snow crunches under Ash's boots as he strides down the lonely street. The closed shops are still brightly lit up encouraging season cheer, but their glow is nothing compared to the brilliance of the starry sky above. He wonders if Mary-Lynette is enjoying these stars right now as well, so very far away.  
  
It's been over a year since he'd last seen her darling face, kissed her sweet lips. He'd been running around across the state sorting out the problems his sisters had left behind, and dealing with the stirring trouble that's firing around him. War looked more and more inevitable each day and he had already chosen sides with Circle Daybreak. Presently, he's in an old  
  
city making queries on behalf of Daybreak.  
  
There are also those Wild powers awakening, somehow he seemed to be in the midst of them too.  
  
A high pitched wailing breaks his chain of thought, slicing through his ears and involuntarily, his heart suddenly quails.  
  
Ash's eyes dart across the street in the direction of the cry. A slender figure, face hidden under hood, is leaning down behind a stroller frantically retrieving groceries scattered on the iced pavement. All the while trying to calm the crying baby she holds with one arm against her chest, rocking it desperately.  
  
He crosses, the road to help her and half way there hears another shrill, equally heart throbbing, from the stroller.  
  
On his arrival both cries abruptly stop, and he feels a strange sense of relief. Quickly he gathers the stray items and places them inside the bag.  
  
"Thank you so m-" She breaks off looking up at him, her pale face terrified. Y-You..."  
  
A memory is sparked inside Ash's mind. An image of a lustful night, although one of its kind, forgotten. When his desire had for once overcome his repugnance for humans.  
  
Her eyes flood with bitter tears as that night replays for her too.  
  
She lets the bag slip from her arm and makes no attempt to re-gather the groceries.  
  
His gaze moves to the child in her arms. From underneath his woolly hat, golden strands stray upon his small fair face. His eyes are like two pools of magic and unmistakably familiar features. He reaches out to him, unable to resist the pull of his blood.  
  
She steps back, shielding him tighter against her. Her indigo eyes threatening his approach.  
  
"Wait!" Ash Calls as she races past him, pushing the stroller ahead. As fast as she moves, she's no match for Ash's speed, and finds herself being blocked by him.  
  
There's the most awkward of silences, as they stare at each other, Ash for once, lost for words. What bothers him though, is that he can't find her name, among the memories which her face is bringing back.  
  
She was a pretty face in at a club. Stormy coloured irises set into large slightly slit eyes, hinting her oriental blood. Dark hair, as a midnight stream flowing over a delicate boned body. Her small full lips, like a perfect sweet cherry-blossom.  
  
There seemed to be an aura of purity surrounding her, which he didn't give much thought too, after all she was only a human.  
  
With the exception of one, like all girls she was head over heels for him, and before the night had past, his desire took the better of him. Under his hypnotic seduction she'd lost most of her senses and willingly went along. Even then, he did feel a slight sense of guilt as she was a virgin, but she was a 'human' virgin.  
  
"Are you...is.... that....?" he trails off, unsure of how put it. What he wants to say is (("I'm that jerk who raped you, about two years ago. But I've changed now, not as big of bastard, or oozing with evil, and was wondering what your name is or if that's our kid, 'cause if so, he'll have some Lamia blood which is not good. And, I have to hold him...))  
  
A new feeling is overcoming him. It's a combination of affection and utter shame. How could he have done something like this? He'll be the first to admit his faults but was he really this heartless? Is this who Mary- Lynette saw?  
  
"Leave me alone!" She storms off and this time Ash remains, looking on after her.  
  
***  
  
Rowan sadly gazes out at the frozen night. She sits at her bedroom window, drowning in solitude. Jade and Kestrel had left that morning to attend a Circle Daybreak meeting in a far away city where their brother would meet up with them and wouldn't return until next week.  
  
She had volunteered her efforts for a Christmas charity program in the town and was obligated to stay on behind. But now, with loneliness crawling at her she wishes sadly to have gone.  
  
Mary-Lynette and Mark had paid her a visit earlier, but the company her sisters gave was not the same as their friendliness.  
  
"Ah, Rowan, I thirst for you." The tantalizing voice whispers in her mind.  
  
She gasps, springing to her feet. There's a presence...So very versant, one she pains to forget.  
  
Eyes. Fiery eyes, that burn into her, a glare she could never escape.  
  
"Please! No it can't be! Not here!"  
  
Rowan runs, remembering the front door to be unlocked. Jumping the whole flight she throws herself at the door.  
  
Only she meets arms instead of wood. Looking up she peers as a wild warning animal, lips pulled back over fine fangs, growling.  
  
Fierce eyes return her menace. His mouth snarling savagely, bearing his own ivory. Clutching in his steel grip, he snaps her head back and hooks his fangs in her exposed neck. Lustfully, he tares and drink. 


	2. Chapter 2

"Do you think he's okay?" Jade asks Kestrel, who shrugs in reply. They are standing outside the trainstation, with a few pieces of luggage and growing impatence  
  
"Nothing's happened to Ash. He 'happens' to other people."  
  
"But last night - "  
  
"We can't be sure Jade." Kestrel cuts her sister off, but despite herself exchanges an apprehensive glance with her.  
  
They have been uneasy all morning, having shared a disturbing nightmare on the train last night. They were amidst a violent storm, beating down with torrents of hot blood. Chocking on squalls of crimson, Rowan and Ash struggled with them, both held expressions alien on their faces, of utter grief. The four fought against the biting wind to one another, and as their reached out to meet an explosion of scarlet threw them apart.  
  
Kestrel and Jade could hear Rowan's heart, screaming, her lips bound by thorns. Ash, hurtled furthest, shattered into a million splinters.  
  
Jade shudders, troubled by the vivid images and prays her sisters right.  
  
"He's here!" Kestrel yells. Ash strides towards them, his smile, hiding the trauma beating inside him.  
  
As he drives them to the conference, Jade chats excitedly, secretly trying to pick up hidden signs of distress in Ash, who does too good a job concealing them.  
  
"We should call Rowan, to tell her we're here." Kestrel prompts, her real reason being to see if Rowan was okay.  
  
"And see how she's coping without us." Jade adds, punching in the number into Ash's cell phone, while making him promise to buy her one too. "Hey... she's not picking up."  
  
"Try later." Ash suggests. She does, repetitively, for ten minutes. The girls share a worried look. Their fear materializing.  
  
"What is it?" he asks, confused. They consider telling him, about their nightmare and worry about his and Rowan's well-being, but decide against it.  
  
"I'll phone Mark, maybe she's there." She isn't, but Mary-Lynette had visited her earlier and she was fine, missing them, but fine.  
  
"Oh well. We'll talk to her afterwards." Kestrel says, somewhat relived.  
  
****  
  
The knife slits down her hand and blood bursts out. Masami swears under her breath, angry with herself for not paying attention.  
  
Since the grocery episode, her senses had abandoned her, like everyone else.  
  
She shakes her head and runs cold water over the cut and takes a plaster one her work mates had handed offered. As she moves back to peeling the potatoes opening the plaster, her child wakes up bawling.  
  
Leaving the kitchen counter, she dashes to her, huddled in blankets on a few chairs facing the wall in a make shift cot. Instead of stopping, like she would always do upon seeing her mother, the child cries out even louder.  
  
Her twin awakes and accompanies his sister. They continue, even after she tends to them. The kitchen door burst open, and Masami knows all too well what to expect next.  
  
Her boss's shouting is much loader than any cry her children could muster and the few staff stand stiff petrified. "You listening?" he snaps at Masami.  
  
"Yes Enzo," she replies cradling the little crying girl in arm while patting her brothers' back to calm him down too. "I'm sorry."  
  
"Tch, I'm sorry." He mocks. "Shut your brats up or fuck of!"  
  
" I said I'm sorry, they've never gone on like this - "  
  
" Just shut 'em up!" He gives a final shout for the workers to get on with it and goes back out front to the dinner.  
  
In the end, Masami falls apart herself, miserably weeping. Her children had carried on like this, throwing tear frenzies for no reason, since her encounter with Ash last night.  
  
Ash...... Firmly, she wipes away her tears. Determined not to fall into the Ash abyss. Especially here.  
  
She's about to put the still crying child back in the 'cot' when she suddenly stops and stares with terror down at her son, who's sucking on her wounded palm as if it's a feeder. A thin stream of blood is flowing from the corner of his mouth and his angelic face seems strangely content.  
  
"Aiden..." she whispers her son's name horrified. 


	3. Chapter 3

IN YOUR LOVE  
  
PART FOUR  
  
Briar Creek is uncomfortably calm tonight, as a storm omen. To Rowan the chilly air feels like a great cloud of lead hanging over her, strangling as a noose.  
  
A part of her quietly wonders what it would be like to love. Having her name whispered sweetly and hand held tenderly.  
  
Tears well up in her eyes, love is left only as a fantasy now.  
  
The life stirring into existence inside her had innocently killed that dream.  
  
She doesn't wipe her falling tears, letting them run down to mingle with the blood staining her neck.  
  
Every tear traps a vile memory form last night. Squall, the man she had been forced to betroth, had come to make sure her loyalties did not sway again.  
  
Rowan had been so helpless, it sickens her. Nothing, nothing she did could stop him. She tore, tooth and talon, but he was simply stronger, bigger and meaner.  
  
Squall hadn't wasted a moment upon entering. Marking the upper hand by drinking her blood, he showed no sign of ever stopping. Leaving her light-headed, weak and unable to call for help. Somehow he had managed to paralyze her telepathy.  
  
None of that matters now anyway. The damage was done. She shakes her head, the Carters couldn't have done much anyhow.  
  
Rowan suddenly feels watched. Glancing slightly she makes out Mary- Lynette spying from her window.  
  
Curiosity is going to kill that girl someday.  
  
Wanting privacy, Rowan walks back inside her late aunt's house. Her feet take her by routine, unthinkingly to her bedroom. Inside she freezes, her eyes falling on a pile of ripped and bloody cloths.  
  
The tears continue. Squall had carried the clawing Rowan upstairs to this room, tossing her as a rag-doll on the bed.  
  
"Our honeymoon suite my dear. Like it?"  
  
Rowan shuts her eyes, blocking out the events which followed. Slowly, ruthlessly, they creep back through.  
  
The struggling - Squall's laughter drowning her screams - her bare body - exposed to a man's invading hands - the pain of him inside her - savaging her... and in the end, her feeling of humility.  
  
Cupping her head in her trembling hands she whispered, "What have you done to me?"  
  
He'd destroyed her.  
  
She, Rowan Redfern had been raped. Her chastity was paraded and consumed in his pleasure. His scent, every inch of her body is drenched with it. No amount of bathing could ever get rid of it since it's not a physical blemish rather an un-washable mark staining her very soul and at everyone's viewing.  
  
The child she carried, his child. As Squall left the house this morning, Rowan looked after him in horror. Was this it? Did he not have anything to say?  
  
Reading her thoughts, he grinned evilly. "I'll send flowers...to welcome the baby."  
  
At those words, Rowan's world fell apart. There was no longer any ground underneath her feet. She'd thought it was his way of having her marry him, but he showed no interest in that now.  
  
What face would she show? How many would believe her story, she did run away from home, with her sisters yes but whom else? There was a whole mill full of rumours to be spread to damage her already tarnished reputation not to mention that of her sisters. Most importantly though, what would she do with the child? There's no such thing as Lamia contraception, and her morals refused to consider abortion.  
  
She opens her swollen eyes to realize how tired she is. Sleep refused to come to her since Squall's arrival.  
  
Longing for some peace, Rowan moves to the adjoining bathroom and turns on the shower tap. She strips off her cloths to immerse herself in the hot water. The water really isn't hot enough for her Lamia skin to soak in all the heat but she lets it make her mind numb.  
  
As the water washes her tears, she lets it lull her into false security.  
  
((Everything would be okay...)) Underneath this shower and sweet smelling shampoo, it seemed believable.  
  
There's a jolt a pain in her head and a picture suddenly flashes in front of her closed eyes. A young girl, with long dark hair, steam covering her naked figure as she showers. Mouthing, "Everything's gonna be alright."  
  
Rowan's eyes fly open, had she dozed off? She shakes her head, sending strands of wet brown hair dancing. Once more she closes her eyes.  
  
((He was gone, miles and miles away))  
  
There's a throb in her chest at the thought of his absence. Rowan sees the girl again, who's openly expressing grief, pounding her small fists against the shower tiles as her mouth wailed a silent scream. Disturbed by the image, Rowan quickly shifts her attention.  
  
((Her sisters would be back in a few days, there was that Christmas charity to keep her busy, and besides, it was too early to tell she was pregnant, even for Lamias...)) 


End file.
